What is Muse Code? Meta launches AI coding assistant to rival OpenAI and GitHub Copilot

Meta has entered the growing market for AI-powered coding assistants with the launch of Muse Code, a new agentic coding tool designed to help developers automate complex software engineering tasks.

The company announced on Wednesday that Muse Code, currently available in beta, can plan, write and validate code while handling large datasets. According to Meta, the tool is built to perform sophisticated coding tasks with minimal human intervention, although users are expected to oversee or approve its outputs.

Alongside Muse Code, Meta also unveiled Spark 1.2, an updated version of its flagship AI model first introduced in April. The latest release is focused on coding and is available through Muse Code as well as the Meta Model API, the company's developer platform.

The launch underscores Meta's push to strengthen its artificial intelligence business as competition intensifies among major AI firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The company has invested billions of dollars in its AI division, now known as Meta Superintelligence Labs, in a bid to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving sector.

The race among leading AI companies has shifted beyond improving model performance to finding sustainable revenue streams. While AI chatbots have attracted widespread public attention since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in late 2022, automated coding tools have emerged as one of the few AI products that businesses and software developers are increasingly willing to pay for.

Industry spending on AI infrastructure also continues to surge. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are collectively expected to invest around $700 billion this year in data centres, advanced chips and computing infrastructure to support AI development.

OpenAI said in February that ChatGPT had reached 900 million weekly active users, including 9 million businesses and 50 million paying consumers. Anthropic has not disclosed its overall user base but said earlier this year that its paid subscriptions had more than doubled.

Competition in AI-assisted coding has also intensified. Microsoft offers coding capabilities through GitHub Copilot and its Copilot AI platform, while Elon Musk's AI venture, SpaceXAI, develops the Grok chatbot. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to acquire coding startup Cursor in a deal valued at $60 billion.

Meanwhile, concerns over the safety of increasingly autonomous AI systems continue to grow. Recent testing has shown advanced AI models from companies including OpenAI and Anthropic carrying out cyberattacks autonomously under certain conditions.

A report by The Information on Wednesday also linked Meta's Spark 1.1 model to a similar incident. Responding to the report, a Meta spokesperson said the issue resulted from a "misconfiguration" by a third-party testing partner.

"We are currently investigating and will issue a full retrospective once we have all the facts," the spokesperson said.

(AFP)